Seite - 189 - in Mobile Culture Studies - The Journal, Band 1/2015

Mobile Culture Studies. The Journal 1 2o15 Nataša Rogelja | The sea: place of ultimate freedom? 189 incomes (mostly retired people) or savings, while others have to resort to various flexible eco- nomic strategies; temporary work in marinas and construction sites, being involved in sailing and diving schools during summer or offering different service to charter companies (cleaning charter boats, sail repairing...), and long distance work through the Internet (computer pro- gramming, translation, writing, stock trading...). The problematic aspect of this kind of eco- nomic life is often expressed through the inflexibility of sedentary-oriented national states. The entitlement to many social positions, state support, rights and benefits, obtaining personal documents, certificates and licenses: all of the above require a permanent address, a fact also relevant in other highly mobile people (Juntunen, Kalčić, Rogelja 2014). The same holds true with participation in official economic life through the banking system (ibid), which is why many of the liveaboards keep fake permanent addresses in order to avoid problems. A unifying feature for all liveaboards is that they have taken a conscious decision to take up a mobile life. Ethnographic details however show that the balance between choice and necessity has to be taken in consideration when talking about the reasons for adopting this kind of life. Redundancy, health problems, blocked career choices and individual crises are not rare among liveaboards, nor is negotiating the tension between experience of material demands in pursuit of a livelihood within the flexible New Economy and prevailing cultural conventions of the good life as observed by Brian hoey in the case of lifestyle migrants moving to Northern Michigan (2005). Personal reasons for choosing this way of life vary: not having enough time for family, for themselves and for their community; because they want to live a healthier life; to avoid the rat race; because they felt violated; because they had a lack of control over their lives; because they like nature, adventure, the sea and traveling; because they think there is a lot of freedom in this kind of life and almost all say that living on the boat is the most economic way to travel (and live).6 Among my interlocutors there were also many sabbatical sailors that prolonged their journey due to economic reasons, their sabbatical year turning into a lifestyle. however, I also noted that for the majority of my interlocutors the phase of “living on the boat” was transitio- nal (although it can vary from one year to fifteen years). The experience of being able to move with the boat, to change places, neighbours and states whenever you like, creates a possibility of an interstitial zone where one can always become, never stay or accommodate, it creates a situation of inhabitation or “temporarily unbelonging”, similarly to the BorderXing art project exploring ideas and concepts of liminality by illegal border crossing performed by two artists and described by researcher Emma cocker (2012). The sea and the boat physically allow for such temporary unbelonging, which can be understood in two ways: as an active dissociation or as a mode of “dropping out”. The cases of my interlocutors speak more about a critical refusal where actors place themselves in an in-between zone, contemplating their situation, their point of departure, as well as their possible future scenarios. for those living on the boat for longer periods (five years and more), the perpetual motion was described as something “normal” characterizing the late 20th and early 21st centuries, as well as a way to contemplate on their life. for some however, it is also a vicious circle they find difficult to leave, having sold their house and not being able to sell their boat anymore as the economic situation changes for example. Mobility is central to their lifestyle and is stimula- ted by various reasons. Bob and Liz for example move further because “…we are fed up with the place, we might find a better job/life somewhere else, because we want to travel, because